Connect with Us

The Two-Way

12:58 pm

Sat April 12, 2014

In Australia, A Minute Of Silence Is Being Sold To Help Vets

Remembrance poppies honoring veterans cover a shrine in Wellington, New Zealand, on a recent April 25, when Australia and New Zealand mark ANZAC Day. A new campaign urges people to buy a minute of silence to support veterans.

Hagen HopkinsGetty Images

They're selling silence in Australia. But before you start thinking that means things are too noisy Down Under, know this: The Minute of Silence was recorded as current and former members of Australia's military stood by, in honor of their fallen comrades. The silence is being sold for a little over $2 to raise money to help veterans.

The Minute of Silence is being sold for around $2.12 (or $2.26 Australian) as part of the annual ANZAC Appeal, which the Returned and Services League of Australia and its New Zealand counterpart use to raise money to help current and former members of the country's defense forces and their families.

The 60 seconds of silence is the group's attempt to reach new donors by using technology. The silence can be heard on a phone; it can also be purchased via text.

It seems that when the veterans' group first considered the idea, not everyone involved immediately thought it was a good one.

"I was a bit dubious, a bit doubtful," the group's Western Australia president, Graham Edwards, tells the country's ABC news organization. Edwards says that he embraced the project after seeing "the enthusiasm at which this is being picked up nationally and talking to younger people who thought it was a good idea."

The minute of silence "was recorded by more than 80 serving and former Australian Defense Force members and their families from conflicts including Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea and Vietnam," ABC says.

The Returned and Services League also released a video of veterans standing silently in a meeting hall.